WASHINGTON — President Trump said Saturday that a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left at least 11 people dead could have been prevented with the help of an armed guard, and later called for “the vile hate-filled poison of anti-Semitism” to be confronted.

He also vowed to go to Pittsburgh, but offered no details of such a trip, according to the Associated Press.

“This wicked act of mass murder is pure evil,” Trump said during the first of two stops in the Midwest on Saturday, adding that Americans should stand up to “any form of religious hatred or prejudice” in their communities.

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It was somewhat of an about-face for a president who hours earlier told reporters that the nation’s gun laws had “little to do” with the shooting, and suggested that the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh should have had an armed guard on the premises. News reports indicated that the synagogue had been hosting a bris ceremony before the shooting took place.

“If they had protection inside, the results would have been far better,” Trump said. “This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect.”

Four police officers were among the injured, according to Wendell D. Hissrich, Pittsburgh’s public safety director.

Initially, Trump, who abandoned calls for unity this week as bomb scares targeted prominent Democrats and a news organization, offered few words of comfort.

“Looks like multiple fatalities. Beware of active shooter. God Bless All!” he wrote on Twitter shortly after reports of the shooting.

But Trump, whose daughter Ivanka; son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and three grandchildren are Jewish, shifted tone during an afternoon appearance at the Future Farmers of America convention in Indianapolis after talking to Ivanka Trump and Kushner.

“Our minds cannot comprehend the cruel hate and the twisted malice that could cause a person to unleash such terrible violence during a baby-naming ceremony,” Trump said onstage. “This was a baby-naming ceremony at a sacred house of worship on the holy day of Sabbath.”

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With 11 days to go until the midterm elections, the president at first wavered on whether to continue with his schedule Saturday. He briefly considered canceling a campaign rally in Murphysboro, Ill., but seemed ready to move forward after a rabbi and pastor delivered prayers onstage at the farmers’ conference.

The president was scheduled to continue receiving briefings on the shooting throughout the day from Mike Burnett, a senior counterterrorism official, according to a statement from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.

As the president expressed horror over the graphic nature of the killing, the Anti-Defamation League called on authorities to investigate the episode as a hate crime.

The president was not the only person in the Trump administration to hit the campaign trail after the shooting. Speaking at a rally in Las Vegas for Republican candidates running for office, Vice President Mike Pence made reference to the mass shooting at a country music festival there a year ago, which left 58 dead.